FULL TITLE: Child rapists taken off Sex Offenders' Register in secret... and police say it's to protect their human rights

Police have secretly removed dozens of convicted sex offenders, including paedophiles and rapists, from the Sex Offenders Register, the Mail can reveal.

Following a human rights ruling, the law was changed last year to allow sex attackers to claim they no longer posed a threat and apply to be taken off the register.

Since then, 43 applications have been approved behind closed doors, at the rate of one every five days.

About half of those who apply have been successful  including eight rapists and 27 child sex attackers.

Each case was signed off by a mid-ranking police officer following a paper review of the case. With the stroke of a pen, each convict was removed from the list, and is now free to walk the streets with no monitoring of any kind.

Those who are taken off the register no longer have to tell the police where they are living, even if they move near a school, or move in with a family with young children.

Nor do they have to tell the police about any overseas travel.

Forces are refusing to name those taken off the register, citing Article 8 of the Human Rights Act  the right to a private and family life  and data protection rules. And they say it would compromise the health and safety of these individuals to name them.

Some are even refusing to give details of the offences committed, and victims are not routinely notified if their attacker has been deemed no longer a threat.

Child protection charities said the use of the law was setting back child protection, and questioned whether sex offenders could ever be reformed.

The "human rights" ruling, appalling as it is, says only that there must be an appeals process - not that a single appeal need ever be approved. On what basis are these police forces deeming these monsters 'no longer a threat'?

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